It's finally the weekend! I finished all my classes for the day. As I set my backpack down and close my apartment door. I step into my room, just as *ding* my doorbell rings. I pull the door open and she jumps into my arms.

"BROOKLYN!" She shouts

"Hey Maple" I reply calmly

"Happy birthday! You're 18, you know what that means" Maple says with an excited voice

"Really?! What?" I say sarcastically

"Once you turn 18, on a random day you swap lives with your soulmate" she explains

"Maybe my soulmate isn't 18 yet" I state. Not really wanting that day to come, not because I don't want a soulmat-

"I still have one class left-" she glances at her watch. "Shoot, I have to go! Happy birthday" she says as she is halfway out the door.

Pushing all the clothes in my closet just to find the few dresses that I own. Fitting myself into the pink flowing dress ten minutes before my parents arrive. I'm always against makeup but I lightly dab some blush on. I only have one mirror in my apartment and it's one of those compact things with a lid. Even so, I have a sticky note covering it. Taking the sticky note off and looking at myself. *Ding* "Coming!" I shout and stick the note over the mirror and shove it into my draw. I put on a fake smile and pull open the door.

"Happy Birthda-" my parents looking at me shocked

"You look pretty," dad says but mom's face tells me that something is wrong.

"Thanks," I say quietly "Is everything okay?" 

"Yeah" they respond but I know that's a lie.

Mom places a cake on the table

"Aww, you didn't have to do that," I say

They light the candle and sing "happy birthday." I wish for my soulmate to actually love me and blow my candles out. The cake is a circle-shaped, vanilla and chocolate, and has the words ‘happy birthday Brooklyn’ frosted on top. She cuts me a piece and pushes it in front of me. It was nice of them to buy me a cake but.. 

"Thank you… really but I'm on a diet" I say the truth since there is probably no way I can get out of eating it. It does look delicious though.

"Come on, it's one-day" dad insisted

But I saw mom’s face show three emotions at once, sadness, concern, and fear. So I stuck my fork in and took a bite. This action made her let out a small smile. The cake is as good as it looks but I resist having another bite. I’m going to take some chances since she looks like she is in a somewhat good mood.

“So…” I drift off, trying to bring up a conversation. “Can you tell me more about the soulmate swap?” I say lightly but enough for them to hear me.

“You have time, there’s no rush to know” mom replies but I got this answer every time I asked. It was like they were trying to hide something from me. I can’t wait anymore, I could be swapping any day now.

“This is the year, and there is a rush,” I say with slight anger. Mom is in shock and is staring at me. I guess she never expected me to respond with anything but ‘yes’ or ‘I understand.’ I was desperate at this point, I could be in someone else’s life without even knowing a thing about anything and everything or how it even works! I wanted answers, I glanced at dad. Hoping that he had those answers for me but all I got was silence. It didn't help that there was no information about soulmate swapping online. *Sigh* I looked straight into my mother's eyes until I started to see tears swell into them.

"Wait no.. I didn't mean to, I just wanted-"

But she was already grabbing her stuff, I reach out trying to stop her but she was already running out the door with dad following. 

"Answers" I drift, my tone getting lower and lower. I drop my head "well, happy birthday Brooklyn" I wish myself.